Will the NFL's New Hitting Rules Ruin Football?

After a grueling weekend of football, the NFL has decided to suspend players
for "dangerous and flagrant hits that violate rules." A memo going out
to players on Wednesday will give more specific details, but officials will
likely crack down on tackles involving helmet-contact. In the past,
players were subject to fines or ejections after illegal hits. The
introduction of suspension will likely change the dynamics of the game.
The news has some players and fans worried about the ramifications it
will have on the sport. Others say this couldn't come soon enough
to protect vulnerable professional athletes:

This Will Change Football Forever, writes Nicholas Carlson at Business Insider: "We believe
the NFL will look very different 10 years from now." He predicts a
number of new rules that could come about in the next decade:

No More Kick-Off Returns:
The two most brutal recent injuries in football – Rutgers football
player Eric LeGrand's spine break and Bills tight end Kevin Everett's
neck injury – happened during kickoff returns. In 2020, the NFL might
just have offenses start at the 20 every time.

No More Helmets: Helmets are supposed to protect players. But instead, they're used as weapons. If NFL teams practiced without helmets, players might not learn how to do that. The
NFL could go further and just take helmets away on Sundays; hits would
immediately get softer. A bonus: more marketable players with more
recognizable faces.

No More Quarterback Sacks: If
a quarterback sack resulted in just an incomplete pass – and not a loss
of yardage – you can bet the players who are the faces of the league
would undergo far fewer injuries. After an
especially brutal week, this new policy can't come too soon. The NFL
might consider implementing a program to educate players how to tackle
as its next step.

This Won't Change Anything, writes Dave Zirin
at The Nation: "There is no making football safer. There is no amount
of suspensions, fines or ejections that will change the fundamental
nature of a sport built on violent collisions. It doesn't matter if
players have better mouth guards, better helmets or better pads. Anytime
you have a sport that turns the poor into millionaires and dangles
violence as an incentive, well, you reap what you sow."

This Is a Bad Decision, says Minnesota Vikings defensive end Ray Edwards:
"The suspension stuff is taking it a little far. It is football. We all
signed up to play this game. Things happen. You can’t alter the way you
play the game. I understand you’re doing it to protect the player but
don’t take away from the game."

The NFL Needed to Act, writes Dawn Knight at The Washington Post: "Coaches
used to tell players to shake it off and get back in the game. New,
stricter guidelines and an NFL concussion committee have stressed the
importance of player health, but this weekend emphasized the need to
impose further sanctions on dangerous tackling... This new policy can't
come too soon. The NFL might consider implementing a program to educate
players how to tackle as its next step."

I Second That, writes Jim Trotter at Sports Illustrated: "The
league has no choice but to step in when players ignore the inherent
dangers -- and when players brazenly thumb their nose at the rules.
Consider New England safety Brandon Meriweather and Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison, who both crossed the line last Sunday. Meriweather took a cheap shot at defenseless tight end Todd Heap, launching and hitting him so hard that Heap's mouthpiece flew downfield as if he had been shot from a cannon."